Data
Share of deaths from terrorism
What you should know about this indicator
- The percentage of deaths due to terrorism is derived by comparing the confirmed fatalities data from the Global Terrorism Database to the overall mortality figures obtained from the 2022 UN World Population Prospects data.
- In some cases it's unclear whether an incident fully meets the criteria. In these borderline cases, terrorism is considered likely but not certain, and the incident is still included. For example, the GTD includes non-state attacks with political or ideological motives (from targeted killings and sabotage to 5G mast arson linked to conspiracy theories). It excludes state terrorism, lawful warfare, and non-political violence such as most U.S. school shootings, profit-driven crime, and personal disputes.
Share of deaths from terrorism
The percentage of all deaths that are due to terrorism.
Source
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2022) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
July 20, 2023
Next expected update
February 2026
Date range
1970–2021
Unit
%
Explore charts that include this data
What you should know about this indicator
- The percentage of deaths due to terrorism is derived by comparing the confirmed fatalities data from the Global Terrorism Database to the overall mortality figures obtained from the 2022 UN World Population Prospects data.
- In some cases it's unclear whether an incident fully meets the criteria. In these borderline cases, terrorism is considered likely but not certain, and the incident is still included. For example, the GTD includes non-state attacks with political or ideological motives (from targeted killings and sabotage to 5G mast arson linked to conspiracy theories). It excludes state terrorism, lawful warfare, and non-political violence such as most U.S. school shootings, profit-driven crime, and personal disputes.
Share of deaths from terrorism
The percentage of all deaths that are due to terrorism.
Source
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2022) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
July 20, 2023
Next expected update
February 2026
Date range
1970–2021
Unit
%
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.
At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.
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Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Share of deaths from terrorism”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre, Veronika Samborska, Hannah Ritchie, and Max Roser (2023) - “Terrorism”. Data adapted from National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260115-151139/grapher/share-of-deaths-from-terrorism.html [online resource] (archived on January 15, 2026).How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2022) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2022) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Share of deaths from terrorism” [dataset]. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), “Global Terrorism Database”; National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), “Global Terrorism Database (2020-2021)” [original data]. Retrieved January 15, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260115-151139/grapher/share-of-deaths-from-terrorism.html (archived on January 15, 2026).